Thursday, April 30, 2015

At what costs?

I've been doing a lot of reading, research for the proto-business idea. One of the books I read was The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated. I feel obligated to add that I did NOT stop at that book. I'm reading others that are more realistic about what a small business entails.

I thought that 4-Hour Workweek had some interesting ideas about work, wealth, and life, but it also comes with a number of cautions.

One of the first things Ferriss discusses in The 4-Hour Workweek, is how he won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championship, by "reading the rules and looking for unexploited opportunities." [1] At the end of the competition, the kickboxers all hated him. He had no form, no real technique... but he won. And winning was all that mattered to Ferriss.

If there's anything I can give him credit for, it's that as far as the book indicates, he only tried that particular achievement once. He won, uses it in his brags, and seems to have walked away from the event. According to the book, his techniques have become common features in the competition.

I write about it because this "exploit the rules to win" philosophy appears to be what has happened in Puppygate. As George R.R. Martin writes:

Call it block voting. Call it ballot stuffing. Call it gaming the system. There's truth to all of those characterizations.

"The Tony-Award-winning producer David Merrick observed, 'It's not enough that I should succeed--others should fail.' If we're brutally honest with ourselves, we'll admit that our achievements are more satisfying when they stand out against a lack of accomplishment by our colleagues. But sometimes our accomplishments aren't just heightened by others' failures, they depend on those failures. This is the case in all competitive situations, such as football games, that pit one party against another." [2]

It reminds me of things my sister has written, about Game Theory. That much traditional politics and theory was based around games that can only have one winner. But despite what Haseltine writes, while business may be a competition, it is also a situation that many can win.

Quick Notes

Thoughts and musings on becoming an engineer, spaceflight, exploration, intersectionality in STEM and leadership, gardening, the environment, and more.

Unless clearly stated otherwise, these posts are purely my own opinion, and do not represent the positions of any employer, my faith community, the professional organizations I support, NASA or any other Government agency, nor any community organization.

The 4-12 in my username is a reference to April 12, also known as Yuri's Night. April 12, 1961 is the date that Yuri Gagarin became the first person to reach space. Coincidentally, April 12, 1981 was the first launch of the U.S. Space Shuttle. April 12th, Yuri's Night, has become an international celebration of spaceflight.